THE trial of a Welshman accused of phoning Dunblane Primary School and pretending to be crazed gunman Thomas Hamilton is to be delayed for him to be medically examined.

Robert Pritchard was due to face trial at Stirling Sheriff Court next month. But a sheriff has agreed for the case to be put off until August for him to be seen by doctors. Pritchard's lawyer, Frazer McCready, told the court, "The Crown accepts that medical investigation will be required."

Pritchard, 36, is accused of making a phone call to Dunblane Primary School headmistress Joy McFarlane in March last year, 11 days before the eighth anniversary of the massacre.

Sixteen five and six-year-old pupils and their teacher died after Hamilton burst into the school gym armed with a revolver and an automatic pistol on March 13, 1996. Sixteen classmates were injured but survived. Hamilton turned his gun on himself. The incident still haunts the Perthshire town.

Pritchard, of Arlington Road, Sully, near Penarth, pleaded not guilty to two charges. The first alleges that on March 2, 2004, he made a threatening phone call to Dunblane Primary School headmistress Joy McFarlane and staff member Jean Grant from his home in Sully, pretending to be Thomas Hamilton, and said he was moving to Dunblane on March 13, 2004 - the date of the eighth anniversary. He is said to have threatened to attend the school four days later to speak to Miss McFarlane, and to have made the call to cause "annoyance, inconvenience and needless anxiety".

The second charge alleges he made a phone call to the school on May 11, 2004, in a disorderly manner and caused a breach of the peace - placing the person who answered in fear.

Sheriff Lewis Cameron adjourned the case for trial on August 4, with a pre-trial review set for July 15. He excused Pritchard from attending the review after first asking, "Where is Penarth, as a matter of interest?" A court official told him, "It's in Wales."